


Who's gonna walk you through the dark side of the morning

by FluffyPuffySheeps



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Books, F/M, Gen, Jason Todd is Red Hood, My First Fanfic, discussions of why ranger's apprentice is awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22122733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyPuffySheeps/pseuds/FluffyPuffySheeps
Summary: Jason and you meet in a library b/c Jason is secretly a nerd.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	1. Books, books, and more books

**Author's Note:**

> First fic! Sort of ignoring canon, hope I wrote Jason right.  
> Edit: Don't read this, it's trash.

Jason opened the doors of the library and breathed in the smell of dust and pages. He’d never admit it, but this was one of his favorite places. Every binding held a story he could immerse himself into, and forget everything that had happened to him. 

The older lady at the checkout counter smiled at him when he approached with his grocery sack of books to return. He was a bit of a regular.

“Hi sweetie, how’d you like the new Brandon Sanderson novel?”

Jason’s mind flew back as he mentally retraced the story, the twists, the turns. The ending had been crazy, leaving more questions than answers. It had been brilliantly written, a real masterpiece. Honestly, it was on his top five.

But Jason just shrugged, unable to do it justice. “It was ok.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Ok, huh? Thought you might want to know when the next one comes out, but never mind.”

“Wait, wait! No, I mean, yes, I mean, when does it come out?”

“November.”

Jason gasped. “That long!”

She smiled at him, one of those smiles that shared in torture that comes from waiting. Sometimes Jason thought the waiting was as bad as coming back from the dead.

Jason smiled sheepishly. “Ok, so maybe it was a lot better than ok. Great, actually. Well, not great. Masterful. Fantastic. Simply beautiful.”

“Well then, you’ll be happy to hear we got the new John Flannagan book in.”

Jason’s eyes widened, and he hurriedly shoved the rest of his books in the drop off slot. Rushing off, he left the bag he’d kept them in at the counter. The older lady watched and laughed, grabbing the bag and putting it next to the others the librarians had collected from him. One of these days he’d ask where they all went. 

\----------------------------------------------

You flipped to the last page of the latest Ranger’s Apprentice, and leaned back with a contented sigh. You’d gone to the library with the intention of checking it out, but you hadn’t needed to go anywhere for the rest of the afternoon (for once in your life you had no homework; the perks of a break after finals) and one thing had led to another, ending with you spending the entire afternoon reading in the library. Well, you thought, it had been worth it.

Looking down, you glanced at your watch. Shoot. It hadn’t just been the afternoon, it seemed, but dinner too. And early evening. In fact, at eight, you were still surprised the library was still open.

“There it is!”

Looking up you saw a young man with black hair and a startling streak of white going through it. He had piercing blue eyes, eyes that looked a little sheepish.

“Oh, sorry. I’ve been looking for that…” He gestured toward the book in your hands. You laughed.

“That’s fair. I guess I’ve been hogging it, haven’t I?” You handed the novel to him. “Enjoy. Though, fair warning, I cried.”

He looked appropriately worried. “Was it sad like the second book?”

“Worse.” you said.

He smiled. “I don’t think I’m emotionally ready for worse than the second book. Maybe you should keep this. Though judging from your pile, I think you’ve got more than enough emotional distress.”

He surveyed your pile, a collection ranging from classics like The Count of Monte Cristo to the entire Lockwood and Co series. He picked up the first of those.

"I loved these! Dang, did you read his other stuff?"

"You mean the Bartimeous trilogy?"

"Yeah. Those were as funny as h-"

He doesn't get much further because you cut him off. You're not one for swearing.

"I thought the ending was super sad, but fulfilling too."

He looks a bit surprised at being cut off, but that's quickly replaced by a frown as he remembered exactly what had happened at the end of the series. 

"Now that was something I most definitely was not emotionally prepared for. Are you trying to make me break down? I’m twenty! I should be past this!"

"Ah, so you aren't interested in that book?" You tease him, tugging on the John Flannegan.

"Wha- no!" He hugs it closer, and you both laugh.

You check your watch again; it’s past time to go. You have to get up early tomorrow. Honestly, why is the only creative writing class this semester held at seven in the morning? You begin to gather up your books.

"The name's Jason." He looks as bewildered as you at that nugget of information slipping out.

"Y/n" you say and suddenly your books are in a teetering pile in your arms, and you and he are at an awkward moment where neither wants to move.

He eyes the pile as it tips precariously.

"You need some help with that?"

"Nah, I'm good."

You take a few careful steps and the tower wobbles.

"....ok, maybe."

He grins and grabs the pile, checking out the much contested John Flannegan on the way out. As you walk, you talk about university life. Turns out he’s a classics major, and works at the Starbucks near you. 

You're just starting into the epic saga of Mrs. Winters and the Cosplay Fiasco when you reach your car. He helps you load the books in, and then you find yourselves just standing there, awkwardness returned.

"Well, see you later."

And with that, he was gone.


	2. It's a fu- freaking romance movie.

Jason thought it was a bad idea when he blew open a thug’s face that night.

Jason thought it was a bad idea when he crashed at his apartment the next morning.

Jason thought it was a bad idea when he binge read the newest Ranger’s Apprentice book.

Jason went back to the library.

\--------------------------------------------------

You perched on the edge of your seat, fingers dancing furiously across the keyboard in a vain attempt to convey the emotion of the scene. It’s the big reveal; no holds barred. Everything comes to light and all misunderstandings are cleared up. It is the ending, the finish, the finale, the bow at the end of the show. Your hero cries their soul out to the heavens, and, for once, the heavens answer back. It contains majesty and beauty and darkness all wrapped into one packed moment. It is also the chapter you have rewritten at least fifteen times now.

Sighing, you slam your laptop shut and lean back, frustrated at your inability to continue.

“Mmmmm, your ex causing trouble? Your boyfriend break up with you?”

WIthout opening an eye, you can tell who it is. The boy from yesterday, with the piercing blue eyes. Back to bother you.

“That’d be kind of difficult, considering I’ve never had a boyfriend,” you reply.

“Never? Now that, my dear madam, is a tragedy. Goodness, the scandal of it all! A young lady like you, without a jealous, overprotective jerk who doesn’t really care? Really, truly shocking.”

You crack an eye open and look at him. “I know.” you say dryly. “It’s a wonder I’ve survived college for so long. Think of all the couple parties I’ve missed, my schedule left unsupervised for a boyfriend to control. I’m such a disgrace to the female socialite population in Gotham.”

“Are you? A socialite?’

You close your eyes again and snort. “I wish. Be a lot easier to pay rent.”

“The rent.” He curses quietly, a shared dislike for the struggle of all university students. “Almost as annoying as whatever you were writing.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” You finally open your eyes. “You’re back? Seems you have as much to do over break as I do.”

He’s quiet. “I’ve got family, I suppose. I could stay with them. But they’re a bunch of-” he calls them a whole ton of nasty words, some of them not even in English. 

“That bad?”

“What about your family?” He nods to the pile of books you’ve collected during your short breaks (turned rather long due to opening that first page, then promising yourself just the first chapter, then, well, you’ve already finished the book) from writing. “Looks like you plan to camp out here overnight.”

You grin. “Wouldn’t that be sweet? Stay in the library all night. Curl up with some hot chocolate, find a nice copy of some charming English book. I’m down. Tonight, just make sure to grab the hot chocolate.”

There’s a pause.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Though there was one time, when I was like, ten, that the library let us do a nerf gun war after hours in the dark. Best day of my life.”

Another pause, then- laughter. “That’s flippin’ amazing! You ran around with a Nerf gun, in a library.”

He mimes a gun and aims it at you, and you clutch your chest in mock panic. He mimes grabbing a radio. “Sorry sir, but we’ve got another reader down. Yes sir, we lost them in No Man’s Land. That’s right sir, Biographies, the place so boring no one wants to go there anyway. We believe someone planted an especially explosive piece of fiction.” He lowers his voice, whispering. “1984, to be exact.”

That’s it. You lose it. Whoever this guy is, he’s hilarious, and the biggest nerd you’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Jason, you remind yourself. That’s his name.

“So, Jason, do I get the pleasure of a last name? It appears to be my dying wish?”

“Todd. Jason Todd. And are there any last words from the dying woman’s lips?”

“Y/n Y/l/n.”

“So, y/n-”

But whatever he was going to say, he is cut off by the library intercom.

“The library will be closing in 15 minutes. Thank you.”

Shoot. You’ve stayed way too late, again. You glance up at Jason. 

“Well, guess that’s my cue to leave.” You go to gather up your scattered self- built fort of books, laptop, hot chocolate, and coat.

“Here, let me help.” 

“I-”

He whispers “I need an excuse for you to finish your story of Mrs. Winters, and the, what was it? Kermit costume?”

You double over in laughter, but check it when a librarian appears from the corner to shush you. “Oh goodness. I forgot about that.”

And you launch back in.

You’re still not even half way through when you’re back at your car again, loaded up and ready to go, back at the awkward silence of last night. It’s winter in Gotham, and cold out. Snowflakes drift down into the soft calm between you two, while a street light casts a mellow light, like a spotlight, onto your parting.

“It looks like we’re in a fu-

He sees your frown before you make it.

"Freaking romantic movie. Rated G apparently."

You give him a little smile. "Sorry, I just don't swear. Besides-" you lean in "I don't need the studio to get sued."

That makes him laugh.

"Well, guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You will?"

"I need to know what happened to Kermit!"

You both giggle, an involuntary reaction to anything from that story, and finally, finally, you part ways.


	3. Utter Trash Returns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....  
> This is trash, but it had been sitting in my drafts for a while, and a really nice anon asked for more. If ya'll want more, I'll post more, but tbh I've grown as a writer since then, and reading this is painful. I'm not really into romance either. But anyway, I'm writing this for the person who commented, not me!  
> tl:dr I'm not going to continue this unless ppl want me to.

For the rest of the week, Jason came back to the library each day, on schedule. She was always there, reading, or typing or (once) sketching what looked like a very accurate picture of Jason sprawling on one of the library chairs. She put  _ that _ away quickly.

It quickly became a favorite source of gossip for the librarians in the break room as they rebound and catalogued. Jason had been coming to this library for a while, and they were all very fond of him. 

For his part, Jason liked y/n. She was the nerdiest nerd he’d ever met. He got her started once on this Sherlock show she liked, and she didn’t stop for what felt like an hour. (He went home and watched it after patrol. He loved it. Not that she had to know.)

He always came in and sat down next to her, just  _ talking.  _ Jason hadn’t talked like that in, well, forever. With the bats, it was always about work, or some deep emotional baggage. Nothing could ever be simple with them. With Roy, and the Outsiders, it was always so  _ dark _ . Like they’d seen so much in their lives they just needed to get it out. And that was great. It was. Sometimes, though, all that Jason wanted was to be his closet nerd self.

But that first day should have been enough. To talk, converse with a random stranger, a stranger who didn’t even swear, was NOT a Jason Todd thing. In fact, he kept waiting for the day it turned out she was a secret serial killer or something. At this point, nothing would surprise him. So he watched closely. He even did a background check (a nagging voice in his head said  _ Exactly what Bruce would want you to do; you swore you’d never make someone feel like they had no privacy like Bruce, didn’t you? _ ) but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. That was the weirdest part. Every Gothamite had done something illegal. Heck, Jason knew literal 90 year olds who robbed their local convenience store. 

By the next Thursday, Jason was convinced she must deal drugs on the side, because  _ there was no way in the horrible pit of a world Jason lived in that she was this pure _ .

He had come to the library like normal. The established routine was for him to be there at 8, on the dot, and for her to scurry off at nine. Normal.

That day he'd brought coffee for the two of them. She'd actually gone ahead and gotten hot chocolate, so he figured he should return the favor. It was the only reason, he swore. No other motives at all. It wasn't like they were friends, or anything. It was that Jason thought she must be a drug dealer on the side and wanted to gain her trust. Obviously. 

She was there, perched in a chair, typing furiously on a small laptop decorated with stickers from various shows. All around her were stacks of books, new ones, suggesting she’d been there all day. She looked cozy, head nodding along to some song pumping through headphones. 

Jason settled into a chair next to her. She didn’t notice. Slowly, slowly enough that Bruce would have been proud, his hand creeped out. It hovered right next to her laptop, but she kept typing like her life depended on it. Click clack click clack clickity click clack click- Then Jason stuck, slamming her laptop screen down.

“..What?” Finally her head lifted and Jason chuckled. Her gaze settled on him and she gave him a death stare. “Hey! I was on a roll!”

“Sorry, but your face… That was priceless!” He kept laughing as her eyes narrowed.

“Well.” she grumbled. “Not like I’m getting much done now. What did you want?”

He eyed her laptop curiously. “What were you writing?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“That sure didn’t look like nothing. It was a flippin’ 47 pages long.”

“It’s… just an assignment for my Creative Writing class.”

".....ok, if you say so, shortstack."

"I'm not  _ that  _ short. I mean, I'm five foot. That's not… ok, so maybe I'm short, but you Mr. Six Foot Giant are just jealous."

"You do know I've seen you jump for the books on the really high shelves, right?"

Her eyebrow raised. "The you must be aware I've seen you struggle to sit on the little kiddy chairs."

"Touche. I've brought coffee."

"Er… I don't drink coffee, thanks though."

And that was it. The world stopped, the planets spiraled out of orbit, and Bruce finally smiled. It was the end.

"You don't… drink…. coffee."

"Nope. Thanks though, it was nice of you."

"Wait, you're serious? You don't drink coffee? How are you alive?"

She looked at him hard. "I'm not. College ate my soul long ago."

"But… I mean… how do you stay awake?"

"Chocolate. It's the duct tape of food. It fixes everything. "

"But…" Jason's mind tried to wrap around the fact that coffee was not, in fact, necessary to stay alive. He didn't drink it like Tim drank it, true, but the absence of it was unthinkable. "But why?"

"Caffeine. It can be addicting, you know. I try to avoid it."

Jason's internal gears slowed to a screeching halt.

"No caffeine? So no… tea? Or pop?"

"Basically, yeah. Hey, you ok? You look a little pale. "

Jason just looked at her, lost. She must be a drug dealer. Thats how she dealt with the absence of caffeine. By getting high.

"Nope, no drugs, only hugs."

Oh. He'd said it outloud.

“Jason? Jason? You there?”

“I- yeah, sorry. One question- what do you do when a guy asks for you out for coffee?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Bold of you to assume that someone would actually ask me out.”

His brow furrowed. “Who wouldn’t? You’re a motherfu-”

“ _ Jason _ .”

“I was  _ trying  _ to compliment you, jeez. Anyway, you’re the weirdest girl I’ve ever met, and you have these crazy strange stories, and you’re obsessed with this niche stuff, and-”

“These are supposed to be compliments.” She stated.

“Ok, good point, but what I was trying to say is that you are a wonderful person and there’s no way someone hasn’t asked you out by know.”

“Are you trying to ask me out?”

“No! No, no, no, no no. I don’t.. Like you that way.”

“Good, ‘cause I don’t either. Things would get awkward real fast. Jason, what are you getting at?”

“I-”

“Wait.” She held out a hand, and fished out a pen and a notecard from her backpack. She quickly scribbled something on the card, and held it out for him.

“My number. So you will stop being so awkward about it. Honestly, how do you even get dates?”

He bit back his answer of  _ I only act the way I do around you. _

“Anyway, I gotta get going.”

“Do you need-”

That’s when he looked closer at the books. They were seperated in piles, with sticky notes on them. And on every sticky note, along with a note, was written  _ Jason _ . 

“What the he- heck is this?”

“I was going to recommend a book to you, and then I saw something else I thought you’d like, and then, well… yeah. Kinda went down a rabbit hole.” she said sheepishly.

“Oh.” He wasn’t blushing.  _ He wasn’t blushing _ . “I’ll just take a picture, then. And-”

His phone started to blare and they both jumped. He grabbed it, stared at the notification, and paled.

“Hey, look, I’ll be right back, K?”

He didn’t stick around to hear her answer, but rather sprinted away.  _ It couldn’t be. They couldn’t have found him. He’d done nothing to garner- _

“Little Wing!”

Shoot.

Dick peeked around the bookshelf and engulfed him in a hug. His arms snaked around like an octopus, trapping Jason in an inescapable cage.

“What the he-heck Dick? What are you doing?”

His brother released him-  _ small mercies _ \- and stared straight into his eyes. “I was lonely, and I haven’t seen you in forever. Who was that girl by the way?”

“Do you have a tracker on me or- no, you probably do. Stupid Bats.” He grumbled. “And you don’t need to know.”

“Oooooooh Jason’s got a girlfriend!”   
  


“Jason’s got a girlfriend?” Oh no. The Replacement peered around the corner, holding some thick nonfiction book in his hands. “I knew he couldn’t have come to the library simply to read.”   
  


“Wooooah. Now that’s insulting.” He stalked over to the Pretender and lifted the book out of his hands. “What are you reading, any way? Forensics in the 20th century? Nope. Come on, let’s go find something you’ll like. Maybe the Dr. Who novelizations.”   
  


He persued the shelves, pulling out the sought after book, and then another, and then another. He might hate the kid, but that’s no excuse to neglect his reading choices.Pretender looked confused, but interested. Good. 

That’s when he realized-

They’d left Dick behind.

______________________

“Why hello there.”

You lifted your head up, to see a young man, tall and lithe staring down at you with a sharp grin.

“Let’s talk about your involvement with Jason.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you didn't recognize the books/authors I mentioned, go read them, they're really good.


End file.
